Chapter 164 The butt determines the head
Chapter 164 The butt determines the head
“This is really the right time to come here!”
When Wang Hao and his party left the studio area of Columbia Pictures in a sightseeing bus, they couldn't help but sigh.
However, different people have different opinions on this exchange and learning.
"I think the director here should not be called a film director, but a film engineer."
Zhuang Wenqiang, who had been silent throughout the entire exchange, couldn't help but speak out after getting in the car:
“Their shooting method puts all the creative work at the front end.
Although this industrialized model guarantees the profits of the film, it also limits the role that the director can play in the filming and production process. Let alone the director, it doesn’t matter who sits in that position.”
"Yes," Zhang Yang nodded in agreement. "Here, directors either have to be successful and famous to become big names, or stick to making art films. Otherwise, they can only be tools for making films, without even the basic right to edit."
Wang Hao listened to them saying this and understood in his heart that the reason why Zhuang Wenqiang and Zhang Yang said this was more from the perspective of a director.
We are all smart people and have been working in this industry for a long time. After studying and communicating in Columbia for some time, we all understand that the industrialization of the film industry is an inevitable trend.
This is a change brought about by the advancement of science and technology and is not subject to personal will.
Moreover, the new technologies, new software and new methods brought about by industrialization are indeed very easy to use, and the improvement in work efficiency is obvious.
But where the butt is, the brain is also.
When the Ming Dynasty fell, didn't the gentry and officials know that if they didn't pay money, the Ming Dynasty would fall?
When the Qing Dynasty was overthrown, didn't the emperors and empresses know that if they didn't carry out reforms, their positions would be lost?
They all know and understand that it is impossible for people to do things that go against their class.
Zhuang Wenqiang and Zhang Yang may only be screenwriters and special effects directors now, but they both have the potential to become directors in the future, and they both aspire to become directors.
Not only them, as Galaxy Interactive Entertainment develops better and better, people like Li Kui, Wen Pengcheng and others are also the same.
In this case, they certainly don't want the director's rights to be restricted.
And there must be many people who have the same idea as them.
Especially for the fifth and sixth generation directors in mainland China, it is simply impossible to ask them to give up or suppress their own authorial nature for the sake of the film industry.
Unless, they have reached a higher level than the director, like Wang Hao.
He is a director, but he is also the owner of a film company.
When he was a director, he certainly didn't want his creativity to be restricted and he wanted to shoot the film however he wanted.
But as the boss of the company, he naturally hopes that the directors under him can shoot according to the pre-made plans.
Especially in his later "The Three-Body" series, in addition to directing some of the works himself, he had to hand over some of the works to others to direct.
In this case, he naturally disliked others changing the script without permission.
Perhaps this is what is called industrialization below the self and creative freedom above the self. However, as a boss, even if you want your subordinates to work 996 or 007, you can't say it directly.
So he smiled and said to Zhuang Wenqiang and others:
"Don't we Chinese have an old saying that goes 'When three people walk together, there must be one who can be my teacher. I will follow the good ones and correct the bad ones.'
It's the same with communication and learning. We can go back and try out and promote the good parts, and we can just copy the bad parts. It is enough to learn critically.
However, through this exchange and learning activity, we must also see the gap between China and Hollywood in the film industrialization.
In my opinion, this gap is huge and has reached a shocking level.
Compared with theirs, our previous way of making films is like the difference between a handicraft workshop and an industrial park.
The difference is not only in the tools, but also in the management methods and our concepts. This is a gap in all aspects.
It’s just that we have always been in China and have only seen the good things about Hollywood movies, but we didn’t know what is so good about them like we did this time.
So we have to speed up and catch up. Given the current gap between the two sides, if we try hard and stand on tiptoe, we may still be able to catch up.
If we continue to allow the gap between the two sides to widen, it will probably take us ten or even twenty years to catch up."
Wang Hao's words were sincere and heartfelt, and everyone's faces became serious after listening to them. The little tricks in their hearts disappeared under the tremendous pressure described by Wang Hao.
After unifying everyone's thoughts, Wang Hao did not hesitate. He took out the business card that the Columbia employee had just handed to him, and in front of everyone, he dialed the number on it directly with his mobile phone that had a North American calling card inserted.
The phone call lasted for a long time, until the call was hung up and everyone returned to the hotel, and then they reacted.
Just now, Wang Hao reached a transaction intention with the software company called "The Foundry" in front of them, and was prepared to spend 160 million US dollars to purchase their products.
Of course, this price does not just include buying a few software, but a complete solution that includes the entire production process.
It can be said that it means spending money to invite professional and technical personnel from the other company to go to China to provide soft power training to their employees.
This is much more practical than their exchange activities in North America this time, and it can be regarded as laying a solid foundation for Wang Hao's next real science fiction production.
Just after Wang Hao and his team completed their study and exchange mission in the United States, the release of "Wushuang" in North America officially began.
The first places to show this movie were naturally the hundreds of theaters near California, after all, that was the headquarters of Columbia Pictures.
But this is not absolute. At least there are still a few theaters around Hollywood showing "Wushuang".
That afternoon, Sarah, led by her boyfriend, came to a cinema near Hollywood to watch the movie which was said to be shot by a Chinese director.
Sarah was actually not interested in this, but her boyfriend was a fan of John Woo and Hong Kong action movies. After hearing that this new movie was similar in style to "Face/Off", he immediately bought movie tickets with great interest.
(End of this chapter)